A very interesting photo Peter. I think that the main grey mass right in the middle of the photo is not ice, but is the Rocher des Mottets. It is now covered in trees, but is completely bare in this photo, evidence of the ice scouring it not long before. The glacier is forced into the V shaped gorge to its left (as we look at it). Now, the cliffs that form the gorge on the right hand side are about 100m high. The left side of the V, opposite les Mottets, is in fact the crag of Le Chapeau. I walked up to the view point beyond le Chapeau last week. It's just to the right of the white mass (snow...? about 1cm right of the small hut) directly below the outfall of that long couloir coming down from the left. You can barely see the snout of the glacier now. There are two green glacial lakes in the bed of the valley. I'll see if I can post one of the photos I took and link it to this one.

I was wondering about that - that makes sense. The Mottets was definitely covered in ice in the latter 19th century, as I think the glacier reached right down to the valley then.

Here's the photo: http://www.ukclimbing.com/images/dbpage.html?id=180058 The cliffs of les Mottets are on the right, dropping down into the gorge.

hello peter where did you find this. jon your comments are realy of interest thank you for both

Hi Brian. I bought it on eBay - I was nosing around looking for old pictures of Cham. Jon's comments are very interesting. I'm just uploading another one, a bit older. I've also wondered about when the Mottets were ice covered - certainly must have been before the 19th century, as Turner's lovely painting shows it ice-free http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=32006

Fantastic to see this image from the era